Stickers from Japan

For my first post, I thought it would be fitting to show off my most recent acquisitions. My friend Frederick just returned from Japan, and brought me back some awesome stickers. If I were ever to go to Japan, I would spend all my money on things like this puffy sushi sticker set:

Are those little balls of rice at the bottom? I can't tell.

The stickers themselves are on a clear plastic sheet, and the backdrop is separate.

The thing about Japanese stickers is that, even though they are extremely cute, I always feel like I cannot fully understand them without a deeper comprehension of the cultural zeitgeist.

Who are these people? Is this a traditional Japanese play? Why is that small child paddling down the river in a rice bowl?

Is there a narrative? Or do animals wearing vests naturally accompany angry, hatchet-bearing children in the forests of Japan? They are cute enough so it doesn't matter.

Finally, these stickers reminded me of some of my favorites, whose provenance I cannot recall: either I bought them at someplace like Blick, or my friend Della brought them back from Japan.

Smiling, puffy tofu stickers! As a vegetarian, these have a special place in my heart. Everything else is anthropomorphized, why not blocks of fermented soy? Although, putting a smiley face on tofu sort of defeats the whole ethical purpose of avoiding meat.

My favorite tofu friend has to the one still in his Nasoya package.